This blog is totally independent and has only three major objectives.
The first is to inform readers of news and happenings in the e-Health domain, both here in Australia and world-wide.
The second is to provide commentary on e-Health in Australia and to foster improvement where I can.
The third is to encourage discussion of the matters raised in the blog so hopefully readers can get a balanced view of what is really happening and what successes are being achieved.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

The Sad End Of Lorenzo - A Brave and Quite Advanced Idea That Just Didn’t Work. A Book Of the Why Would Be Fascinating.

CSC has announced a revised deal with the Department of Health that will secure savings of £1 billion from its disputed £3.1 billion deal for the North, Midlands and East of England.

EHealth Insider understands that the new deal draws a line under DH contractual liabilities as well as securing the savings.

The savings are twice those announced in 2011 when the government first announced that it would be 'scrapping' the National Programme for IT in the NHS.

The deal will also ensure that CSC is paid for past work done and for maintaining existing systems. But the extent to which it commits the NHS to further implementations from CSC is unclear.

In a US market announcement, CSC said today that it has “signed a non-binding letter of intent with the UK Department of Health (NHS) that defines a way forward for CSC to deliver healthcare solutions and services, primarily across the North, the Midlands and East of England."

The statement adds: "The principles contained in the letter of intent are intended to establish a framework for a broad agreement to be entered into by the parties by 31 March 2012."

The market announcement adds: "As a part of this agreement, it is intended that CSC will contract to deliver additional Lorenzo implementations, adding to the 10 deployed successfully to date, with options for more where demand materialises."

Lorenzo is the system originally developed by iSoft that CSC has been trying to deploy to trusts in the NME.

The company's local service provider deal for the regions was thrown into turmoil last spring, when Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, the last of four, key, early adopters, pulled out of the programme.

Since then, the company has been locked in negotiations with the DH about a new deal, but the talks have been complicated by enquiries by watchdogs, Parliament and ministers into the national programme and the CSC deal in particular.

Last month, CSC warned that it might not get the deal it wanted, took a £1 billion write-down on the programme, and announced that it was looking to make 500 people redundant from its NHS account.

The DH appears to have decided not to completely terminate CSC’s contract, even though it said it considered the company was in breach of contract when Pennine Care left the programme. CSC has always rejected the suggestion it was in breach of contract.

.....

In return for the new deal, CSC is expected to be required to deliver a simplified version of Lorenzo to an unspecified number of NHS trusts in the NME. One source described this software as essentially a patient administration system.

EHI further understands that development of the more advanced Lorenzo 1.9 electronic patient record system has been shelved.

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

iSoft – A Problem for More than the NHS!

In November 2005, I had the opportunity to review, in some considerable detail, the Hospital Information System which was being offered to an international client as a solution to provide advanced computer services for a three hundred bed tertiary private hospital.

It was clear at that time that the iSoft Lorenzo software suite was little more than ‘foilware’. The system was a concocted blend of old and new components, was obviously un-integrated and lacked any common utility in its user interface.

Needless to say I recommended that no further engagement be had with iSoft and that alternative providers of the necessary HIS software be considered.

The Lorenzo vision essentially destroyed a good portion of the NHS Program for Health IT and indirectly our largest Health IT company of the time here in Australia. Really quite a saga!
En-passant I wonder what happened to the much hyped super specialty hospital at Macquarie University and its implementation that was said at the time to be Lorenzo?
Anyone know?